Hit Comics Vol 1 18
Supporting Characters: * Doc Vaughan, Stormy's boss * * Detective Ray Cooper Adversaries: * Oshinto Karu * Mipsa * about 12 henchmen * Dr. Gilbert Falk Other Characters: * Locations: * Los Angeles ? Items: * the Great Defender's paralysis-gas gun Vehicles: * | Writer5_1 = Toni Blum | Penciler5_1 = Witmer Williams | Inker5_1 = Witmer Williams | StoryTitle5 = Red Bee: "Mary Jellicoe" | Synopsis5 = On a quiet weekend at the D.A.'s country home, Rick Raleigh and the D.A. interrupt an attempted kidnapping of the D.A.'s neighbor, Mary Jellicoe. Rick gets head-konked unconscious with a pistol butt, but Mary escapes, as do the two thugs. The D.A. returns to town, to look up their license plates; Rick changes clothes, explores Mary's house, and attempts to question Mary, who eludes him via a sliding wall panel, and escapes in a large speedboat. The Red Bee runs to the nearest garage, punches out the attendant, steals a car, drives home to his apartment building, on the roof of which he has an autogyro parked. He flies around until he finds the motor launch, which now has six gangsters aboard it, and pancakes his aircraft onto the water in front of the boat. One gangster throws a hand grenade, while t.R.B. swims underwater and boards the speedboat. The thugs had earlier framed Martin Jellicoe, Mary's dad, sending him to prison; they now are harshly interrogating Mary, about some money that is hidden in her house; the Red Bee punches out at least two of them, but numbers prevail. Leaving the Red Bee strung up by this thumbs and Mary tied up, the bad guys open the launch's seacocks and almost escape in a lifeboat. Red gets loose, and releases Michael from his belt pouch; Michael has surprisingly not drowned while our hero was swimming under water. Michael and Red Bee and Mary scramble into the dinghy with the gangsters, all of whom are quickly punched out. The Red Bee forces a written confession from the gang leader, and leaves all of them on the pier, tied to a large bollard. | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * District Attorney Hawkes * Michael, the Red Bee's bee Adversaries: * six thugs Other Characters: * Mary Jellicoe * Martin Jellicoe (not present, in prison) Locations: * Superior City, Oregon Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer8_1 = Gregg Powers | Penciler8_1 = Gregg Powers | Inker8_1 = Gregg Powers | StoryTitle8 = Hercules: "Clinton Monument Works" | Synopsis8 = Joe shows up at a monument factory, dressed in his superhero outfit, and impulsively helps out a couple of workers attempting to move a heavy tombstone, then notices some large welts on their backs. Investigating, Hercules discovers the foreman and manager at the monument works are treating the employees like slaves, taking half their earnings, all unbeknownst to the owner. Violence ensues, during which Hercules bare-handedly breaks an industrial-sized stone-cutting buzz saw off its axis and flings it at one bad guy, and casually shrugs off having a tombstone dropped into his head; in fact, the tombstone breaks into small pieces. One bad guy uses a crane to drop a five-ton block onto Hercules; he easily catches it, and flings it back hard enough to destroy the control cab. A sledge hammer attack and some pistol shooting both fail due to Joe's quickness; then both bad guys are knocked out and dragged away to the owner's mansion. Both are fired on the spot, and physically defenestrated, by the owner and Joe Hercules. | Appearing8 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Sledge (foreman at monument works) * Ferret (manager at monument works) Other Characters: * two un-named monument works employees * Mr. Clinton (owner of the monument works) Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Notes = * The Great Defender: ** Whatever city Stormy Foster lives in, it’s a Pacific Ocean port, with a really tall suspension bridge across the shipping channel. Given that a later adventure (*) involves Stormy and Ah Choo driving to Death Valley and returning the same day, on a drug delivery errand, this city is probably in southern California, and is most likely the Earth-X version of Los Angeles. *** (* = “King Korman’s Castle” in Hit Comics #21) ** Stormy Foster kills four spies by paralyzing them, causing them to fall off a tall bridge onto the steel deck of a passing ship. “That finishes them!” says he. ** Stormy can run at up to 50 mph, is as agile as a puma, can survive being rammed with a car, and can burst right through a stout oaken door. He runs up a staircase at 7 steps per leap. ** Ah Choo and Detective Cooper both know that The Great Defender mixes up his paralyzing gas at Doc Vaughan's pharmacy, and they both must know that T.G.D. is only there at times when their other pal Stormy Foster is absent, but neither of them seems to have figured out his secret identity. ** Oshinto Karu seems to have gotten away. * The Red Bee: ** Rick Raleigh gets knocked out with a pistol butt, the (at least) 8th concussion of this career. ** With no apparent provocation, the Red Bee punches out a garage man and steals a car. While driving back to town, based on no evidence seen by the reader, he decides: "That garage guy is mixed in with this Jellicoe mess!" We never do find out why he thinks so. ** The Red Bee has an autogyro, which he parks on the roof of Rick Raleigh's apartment building. He lands this craft in the river, where it presumably sinks, having no pontoon landing gear. One thug throws a grenade at it; we do not see whether this does any damage, and we do not see this aircraft again. * This issue of Hit Comics also featured: ** Ghost of Flanders : (No Title), by Toni Blum & George Brenner (as Wayne Reid) *** Supposedly dead in the Battle of Marne, in the First World War, "Rip" Graves operates as a masked superhero from a crypt beneath the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He secretly and single-handedly excavated and built this sub-crypt base. In this tale, a group of Fifth Columnists seek to secure some important defense plans from Fort Brigg. *** The Ghost of Flanders uses a red poppy as his sign. *** He flies an armed biplane, seemingly of WWI vintage. ** Betty Bates, Lady at Law: (No Title), by Stanley Charlot & Al Bryant *** "Outside of the courtroom as well as within, Betty Bates staunchly defends the innocent and relentlessly hounds the most vicious and dangerous men of the underworld." ** Bob and Swab: (No Title), by Klaus Nordling ** Strange Twins: (No Title), by Jerry Iger & Alex Blum ** Lion Boy: (No Title), by Merton Holmes & Henry Kiefer ** Don Glory: (No Title), by Toni Blum & Arthur Peddy * Hercules: ** This issue's Hercules story is credited to "Gregg Powers" but according to one source: *** "The Who's Who lists Gregg Powers as a by-line. Bill Black states that the story was not written by George Tuska as originally listed, nor did he draw this story." | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * Hit Comics #18 entire issue * Hit Comics #18 index entry }}